Comments by Uriel-238https://www.techdirt.com/
Easily digestible tech news....PvPhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180209/09391739198/ubisoft-perma-bans-creator-cool-non-cheating-tool-division-because-it-was-made-with-cheating-software.shtml#c465
Wed, 21 Feb 2018 16:35:46 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180209/09391739198/ubisoft-perma-bans-creator-cool-non-cheating-tool-division-because-it-was-made-with-cheating-software.shtml#c465As a note, when The Division was first released, PvP play was optional. Ubi has since made PvP the focus of most new updates and the only place to get best loot.

That would have been a dealbreaker for me, and I wouldn't have purchased the game had I been properly informed. Action PvP is always biased towards better internet connections, hence against Comcast regional monopolies. For games that are not intrinsically competitive (such as The Division which is intrinsically cooperative) Forcing PvP is a cop-out. It's justification to overrestrict (as per the game's draconian trading restrictions.)

The Division treats single-players and co-op players as PvP as a means to justify DRM, not because it makes the game better.

]]>Trump and Hillaryhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180216/20544639256/nunes-demands-copies-fisa-docs-about-steele-dossier-warrants-court-suggests-taking-it-up-with-fbi.shtml#c697
Wed, 21 Feb 2018 00:02:17 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180216/20544639256/nunes-demands-copies-fisa-docs-about-steele-dossier-warrants-court-suggests-taking-it-up-with-fbi.shtml#c697Us and them; And after all we're only ordinary men

]]>I have a number of friends who play The Divisionhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180209/09391739198/ubisoft-perma-bans-creator-cool-non-cheating-tool-division-because-it-was-made-with-cheating-software.shtml#c320
Tue, 20 Feb 2018 23:55:33 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180209/09391739198/ubisoft-perma-bans-creator-cool-non-cheating-tool-division-because-it-was-made-with-cheating-software.shtml#c320I played it for a while, until I found I couldn't do housekeeping without being currently signed into the network. I hadn't encountered an MMO-lite until then. Tried it for a while and left disgusted by a dozen points.

Curiously, it's a game where civilians and enemies are only discerned by the color coding of the HUD. Either way, they're desperate Americans in a quarantined lawless city. But it's okay for these Americans to gun down and loot those Americans because we're members of a secret government department and we've been ordered to do so.

And that fiction is accepted unironically throughout the game.

]]>Our Insect Overlordshttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180213/16341239229/court-sends-cop-back-to-prison-bogus-contempt-cop-arrest.shtml#c303
Tue, 20 Feb 2018 23:36:45 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180213/16341239229/court-sends-cop-back-to-prison-bogus-contempt-cop-arrest.shtml#c303I'm pretty sure most of the 21st century wouldn't have happened if there was an overlord cabal controlling things. The whole point of having such an institution is to prevent chaos such as the 9/11 attacks, or the torture program or the opioid epidemic or the surveillance state or the Russian Meddling / Trump administration.

When the Goatse pic appeared en mass on Atlanta digital billboards, that kinda showed the Illuminati orgs had been haxx'd apart.

Munroe pointed it out in 2013 regarding our all-too-frequent government shutdowns. The point of such organizations was to prevent unrest, not agitate it.

]]>You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only onehttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c1133
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 12:52:51 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c1133I've confessed before to being a Lennonist.]]>Government undermining of our common values and freedoms.https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180208/10164139192/ice-wants-to-be-yet-another-federal-agency-with-access-to-unminimized-surveillance.shtml#c457
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 18:52:31 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180208/10164139192/ice-wants-to-be-yet-another-federal-agency-with-access-to-unminimized-surveillance.shtml#c457We've had numerous articles right here on Techdirt that have analyzed released documents from within our agencies noting that the public is now regarded not as citizens with rights but enemy combatants.

We are assured by newsmedia that we, the general public have rights. But any given individual who dares to exercise those rights can still be pressured by the police (violently) to relinquish those rights. And they are.

But for now our news media and our fictions tell us we still have those rights. I'd be curious how much of the public still believes them.

]]>Was the law enforcement officer right?https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/19040439126/court-shuts-down-troopers-attempt-to-portray-new-ish-minivans-with-imperfect-drivers-as-justification-traffic-stop.shtml#c2261
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 17:03:03 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/19040439126/court-shuts-down-troopers-attempt-to-portray-new-ish-minivans-with-imperfect-drivers-as-justification-traffic-stop.shtml#c2261Given the propensity for law enforcement officers to plant evidence, I think we cannot say with certainty that he was right.

Was the quantity of drugs substantial? Was it, say five kilograms of narcotics, more than would be convenient for a trooper to walk around with?

If not, we can't rule out the trooper planted the evidence to justify the arrest. There are so many incidents of bad faith in law enforcement that we cannot merely accept good faith.

]]>"putting their own children through this bullshit"https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c1020
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 15:16:27 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c1020Amusingly the right is also at the same time trying to reduce access to birth control and abortion, especially to those marginalized.

]]>Re: ICE is the new Secret Policehttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c1008
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 15:11:24 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c1008ICE has it's own internment camps. I can't say if the folks there are forced to work. That's all classified.

As it will be if internees start getting processed.

]]>So it has been about "equality" since the dawn of time.https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c1003
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 15:08:40 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c1003Remember that the Constitution made us all equal...except for slaves and women, and sharecroppers and people in debt, and Mormons and any other religion that was too weird.

The Trump era has just put American hypocrisy into sharp relief.

Equality has to be for absolutely everyone, or it's not.

]]>"when they run out of those damn illegals"https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c980
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 15:04:31 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c980The purge trains don't end and they don't stop.

To borrow phrasing from Bertrand Russel, it's not about who's right, but who's left.

]]>"Illegal is Illegal."https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c960
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 15:00:30 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180212/10343839206/activist-sues-ice-unconstitutional-targeting-immigrants-first-amendment-protected-activities.shtml#c960Which prompts our daily reminder that we are all felons and cannot help be felons by some laws including the CFAA, the espionage act and for the crime of conspiracy. It is only because of prosecutory discretion, the right of district attorneys to choose which crimes they want to prosecute in court (id est selective enforcement) that we are not all in prison for long sentences.

But if an agent of the state, a law enforcement officer or some other official wants to make sure you disappear, (or just confiscate your stuff) he has approximately a 90% chance of succeeding to get you convicted and in prison.

We are all criminals.

]]>The police ARE the "wrong hands"https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180208/11414739194/white-paper-points-out-just-how-irresponsible-responsible-encryption-is.shtml#c183
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 12:22:33 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180208/11414739194/white-paper-points-out-just-how-irresponsible-responsible-encryption-is.shtml#c183US law enforcement agencies are at this point notorious for going to great lengths to bypass fourth-amendment protections, either by evidence laundering (id est parallel construction) or by cooperation with conviction-eager judges.

Police access to crypto back doors will lead to fishing expeditions and it will lead to state-assisted industrial espionage. Neither the US government nor it's agencies, including the Department of Justice are neutral party. They're not even unified parties, in which departments are allied to the interests of their administrators, and will lie to congress and to overseeing agencies to cover their ulterior motives.

]]>"data from foreign countries such as about mass invasion plans or human trafficking"https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180208/10164139192/ice-wants-to-be-yet-another-federal-agency-with-access-to-unminimized-surveillance.shtml#c123
Fri, 9 Feb 2018 11:15:08 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180208/10164139192/ice-wants-to-be-yet-another-federal-agency-with-access-to-unminimized-surveillance.shtml#c123When state agents seek out evidence obtained in volation of the constitution and in violation of the rights of the public (yes, even when they are foreigners abroad) that is a crime by state agents against the people. (In the US it's not enforced or punished, since state agents are abovet the law. But it's still an injustice, and it's still a crime.)

In civilized nations, when evidence is identified to be of this nature, even when it isn't used directly to prosecute but rather to continue an investigation, it invalidates both. Civilization has fallen out of favor lately.

The NSA's mass surveillance program was built with the spurious intent to treat terrorists as enemy combatants. But as such, now we treat the public as enemy combatants. The US no longer has an interest in serving the public and enforcing law, but to regard ordinary people as a threat and contain them.

The United States is an occupied territory by an enemy military. Our law enforcment agencies are turning into espionage agencies with military departments to enforce their will, they don't intent to police, or enforce law they intend to sweep and clear.

When the public is the enemy there aren't criminals. There are only combatants.

We used implement countering devices just to deter the criminals themselves. When a ruffian caught someone unawares and took his stuff, he had to hire a thief-taker to hunt down the miscreant and errant valuables. Ironic since the thief-takers were often in on the take with the thieves.

Then the Runners and the Peelers were both organized so we didn't have to run around with swordcanes and decorate our manor-houses with mantraps. (For real!)

]]>That does sound like a sweet movie in the making...https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/19040439126/court-shuts-down-troopers-attempt-to-portray-new-ish-minivans-with-imperfect-drivers-as-justification-traffic-stop.shtml#c1901
Wed, 7 Feb 2018 23:55:36 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/19040439126/court-shuts-down-troopers-attempt-to-portray-new-ish-minivans-with-imperfect-drivers-as-justification-traffic-stop.shtml#c1901White 40-year-old woman in minivan successfully conveys drugs while two brown men in a new, clean (and clean) minivan run chase and draw DEA attention.

And this gambit works until police in frustration plant drugs in the brown-men's minivan before the dogs show up.

Kinda Alfred Hitchcocky.

]]>Unlawful drug busts...https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/19040439126/court-shuts-down-troopers-attempt-to-portray-new-ish-minivans-with-imperfect-drivers-as-justification-traffic-stop.shtml#c1900
Wed, 7 Feb 2018 23:49:48 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/19040439126/court-shuts-down-troopers-attempt-to-portray-new-ish-minivans-with-imperfect-drivers-as-justification-traffic-stop.shtml#c1900...can find even planted truffles.]]>Huncheshttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/19040439126/court-shuts-down-troopers-attempt-to-portray-new-ish-minivans-with-imperfect-drivers-as-justification-traffic-stop.shtml#c1894
Wed, 7 Feb 2018 23:47:24 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/19040439126/court-shuts-down-troopers-attempt-to-portray-new-ish-minivans-with-imperfect-drivers-as-justification-traffic-stop.shtml#c1894The need to preserve the rights of the people, and the eagerness with which our law enforcement agencies have demonstrated willingness to violate those in pursuit of a collar has ruled out hunches as a means by which criminal cases get solved.

..or would in a fair court of law. It turns out in the US court that all sorts of rights violations are fair game to seize cash, contraband and any other property Law Enforcement wants to repurpose. And the judges who block such acquisitions in preservation of Constitutional law are the exceptions.

]]>Yep. This looks like evidence laundering.https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/19040439126/court-shuts-down-troopers-attempt-to-portray-new-ish-minivans-with-imperfect-drivers-as-justification-traffic-stop.shtml#c1667
Wed, 7 Feb 2018 14:22:16 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/19040439126/court-shuts-down-troopers-attempt-to-portray-new-ish-minivans-with-imperfect-drivers-as-justification-traffic-stop.shtml#c1667The trooper couldn't find a strong justification for probable cause, and, I dare say, expected the judge to ignore the flimsiness of the one he used.]]>This is incidental...https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180201/18144539138/public-school-board-member-threatens-boss-woman-who-spoke-out-against-school-book-banning.shtml#c327
Mon, 5 Feb 2018 15:55:33 PSThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180201/18144539138/public-school-board-member-threatens-boss-woman-who-spoke-out-against-school-book-banning.shtml#c327But there certainly is (or should be) a threshold of utility or market share (especially if a company has a monopoly on critical features) at which point the company has to abide by the same rules of neutrality that departments of state (and its agents) do.

IANAL so I don't know how that threshold is defined, but one example is Microsoft Windows, when Microsoft was looking to integrate Internet Explorer into Windows Explorer without allowing for any substitution with a competing web browser. It was determined that Windows had enough of a market share, and Windows Explorer (its file manager) were too integral.

I don't know all that Google is doing, and if anything of it qualifies for that threshold. Though I know if they did something to make their Gmail intolerable to me, I'd have a heck of a time backing it all up and transferring to a different email service.